A Controversy over a Sign from Heaven

Introduction: Context of Jesus' Withdrawal and the Pharisees' Hostility

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, January 19th, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together to the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Mark's Gospel, and the eighth chapter. For those who may be visiting with us, we have for some time now been working our way through, verse by verse, paragraph by paragraph, through the Gospel according to Mark. And we find ourselves this morning in chapter 8, and the incident recorded in verses 11 through 13. Mark 8, verse 11.

0:52 And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him. And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, trying or tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.

1:22 And he left them, and again entering into the boat, departed. And he departed to the other side.

1:33 As we come to consider this paragraph of Mark's Gospel, read in your hearing, it is important for us to remember what I have repeatedly said over the past several weeks concerning the overall purpose of our Lord for these periods of withdrawal from the multitudes in the area of the north section or northwest, the west section of the Sea of Galilee. In approximately one year's time our Lord will make His final journey to Jerusalem that will result in His rejection and crucifixion. So during this time our Lord is concerned to stay away from those areas where He will be unusually harassed by the increasing hostility of the Pharisees and also of the Sadducees, all of whom have been harassed. and the Herodians, where he will be safe from the pressure of the crowd which in its carnal conceptions of him desired to make him an earthly king, as we read in John chapter 6, and where he will also have lengthy seasons of retirement in order to concentrate his

2:54 attention upon the final training of the twelve, these upon whom, minus Judas, will rest the ongoing development of his own kingdom through the church. Now the passage before us clearly describes what happened soon after Jesus returns from the eastern side of the lake, the less populated area over in the place of the ten cities. Called the Decapolis, what happens when he returns over to an area, the precise location of which we do not know, but which was obviously somewhere near the larger cities such as Capernaum. No sooner does he come back into that area than indeed he meets these growing enemies called the Pharisees and also, according to the parallel passage in Matthew 6, the 16, 1 and following, the Sadducees as well. As we come to the passage this morning, let me suggest that the thought contained in it breaks down very naturally into two major divisions.

The Aggressive Approach of the Pharisees (Verse 11)

4:12 First of all, we have described for us in verse 11 what I am calling the aggressive approach of the Pharisees. And then in verses 12 and 13, the decisive approach of the Pharisees. response of Jesus to the Pharisees. First of all, then, the aggressive approach of the Pharisees in verse 11. The text tells us that the Pharisees came forth and began to question or probably a better rendering, began to argue or to debate with him. It is the same word used in chapter 9 and verse 14 in which we read, and when they came to the disciples, they saw a great multitude about them and scribes questioning with them, debating with them, arguing with them. Now, the picture is very vivid in Mark's account. In the past, we found Mark describing in the midst of the multitudes the presence of the

5:24 scribes and Pharisees, with jaundiced and cynical eye, watching every movement of the Lord Jesus, with an equally jaundiced and cynical ear, listening to every word, hoping to pounce upon something he says, hoping to see something he does which can become the occasion of accusing him. And in those instances, we find the Lord Jesus sometimes reading their thoughts and responding to them, hearing their murmurings and rebuking them. But now, in this paragraph, it is not a matter of the Pharisees blending into the crowds as spies waiting to trap him in his words, but the text tells us no sooner did Jesus come from the less populated area of the Decapolis, and by boat make his way across to the area of Dalmanutha, somewhere on the western shore of Galilee, the more populated area, but that the Pharisees come forth and begin to debate with him. You see the element of aggressiveness that is present in the text? They come forth and they take the initiative of the Pharisees, and they take the initiative of the Pharisees, and they take the initiative of the Pharisees, and they take the initiative of the

6:46 Pharisees, and they take the initiative of the Pharisees. they come in other words loaded for great. Though come to pick a bone with Jesus they're getting bolder, they're getting more aggressive, they're getting more visible in their opposition. Furthermore according to the parallel passage in

7:04 Matthew 16, in verse one they come this time and for the first time in Mark's record of the life of Jesus and the life of Hope for the Pharisees in other happens. However, in company with the Sadducees, this other group of leaders with whom they naturally had very little in common, yet in common cause of trying to get rid of Jesus, these strange bedfellows are found together, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Now, as we attempt to understand what is recorded, let us remember what we've already learned about this group of men, the Pharisees, particularly with respect to their identity and to their general attitude to Jesus. As to their identity, they were, as most of you know, the official spiritual leaders in Israel, the strictest sect of leaders who were committed to passing on and enforcing the Torah. This was the tradition of the elders and of the rabbis. By and large, they were marked by all of the horrible inconsistencies described by our Lord in such scathing language in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 23.

8:30 Now, what was their general and prevailing attitude to Jesus? Well, because Jesus marched to the beat of a different drum, there was a growing, and open, hatred for the Son of God. Mark has already informed us, as far back as chapter 3 and verse 6, that the Pharisees went out and straightway with the Herodians took counsel against Him, how they might destroy Him. Even in that earlier period of the great miracles in the area of Capernaum, they were set in their hearts upon nothing, nothing less than the destruction of Jesus of Nazareth. And the things that particularly grated against them and ground their socks was that unlike themselves, He was a friend of the riffraff, friend of publicans and of sinners. They accused Him of indulging in blasphemy because He forgave sin in His own person. And they said, This man blasphemes! Who can first give sin but God only?

9:47 Furthermore, they were incensed because although He perfectly kept the fourth commandment, He was continually breaking all of their nitpicking silly little rules about the Sabbath and doing it right under their nose. Furthermore, He openly flaunted their man-made traditions and rituals regarding the Sabbath. And they said, O Lord, we ask this of you that you don't put us in the same situation! And they said, What did you do with the man of the cross?

10:23 And He said, After His death and the resurrection, he strawed up the blood of the world. And their hearts was gradually drenched by fear and their hearts was filled with fear. They were in a state of terror because they thought that they were better than God. But they did not. And they said, And they said, But we are not just as weak as they were. We aren't as good as them. We aren't as good as them. We aren't as good as them. We aren't as good as them.

10:41 stench through all of those specifics was this growing envy that ultimately led to their crucifying Him. For you remember it says that He knew that for envy they had delivered Him. The crowds that they once held in their spell by their despotic ritual rigors, they were losing to Jesus. And with that came a growing spirit of envy and of jealousy.

The Pharisees' Specific Activity: Seeking a Sign from Heaven

11:12 Now when you read the words that the Pharisees came out and began to dispute or argue or debate with Him, you must read into that word Pharisee that identity and that prevailing attitude. Now in the text that is before us, Mark tells us two things that characterize this present debate or discussion. He gives us their specific activity. They were seeking of Him a sign from heaven and their sinister motive trying Him or tempting Him.

11:56 Now what was their specific activity at this time? They were seeking of Him a sign from heaven. In their aggressive, argumentative approach, they were seeking from Christ what is described in the text as a sign from heaven. Now what precisely were they seeking?

12:22 Well, a sign, according to Scripture, is a wonder work, a miracle which points to the unique identity and authority of the one who performs that sign. John 20 and verse 30. Many other signs did Jesus truly in the presence of His disciples that are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that believing you might have life through His name. A sign was a miracle which pointed to the unique identity and authority of the one who performed it.

13:07 This is why Paul could say using the same word in 2 Corinthians 12, the signs of an apostle were wrought in me. An apostle was a unique officer in the church of Christ with unique power and unique inspiration. And Paul says, I was able to perform those signs, those wonder works, those miracles which pointed to my unique office and my unique identity. Now in the presence of these Pharisees, Jesus had already done many signs and wonders, but they had this unique quality and it's true of all of His signs except the cursing of the fig tree. All of the signs of Jesus were signs that were manifestations of the compassionate, restorative, sin-negating grace, the grace of God in the person of the Messiah. He healed the sick. He opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the years of the deaf.

14:23 He raised the dead. He fed the hungry. And what's the common denominator running through all those signs and wonders? They were of a compassionate, restorative, merciful nature in ministering to sinful men.

14:41 Now the Pharisees, had seen those signs. The Pharisees had been in the presence of Jesus when He did those signs. As He did them, He was fully displaying all of His messianic credentials. Everything that the Spirit of Jesus had said through the prophets would be characteristic of Messiah when He came.

15:10 Jesus Himself had done that. John, you'll remember in Matthew 11, the record of John's imprisonment. And in the midst of that imprisonment, his faith begins to waver. And he sends messengers to Jesus and says, Are you the one that should come?

15:26 Are you really Messiah? Or do we look for another? How did Jesus respond? He said, Go back to John and tell him what you've seen and heard.

15:34 And then he records the specific identifying marks of Messiah. The deaf hear. The sick are healed. The poor have the gospel preached.

15:46 Every single credential that the Spirit of Jesus through the prophets said would be present in Messiah, Jesus now wears all over His person. He doesn't lack one distinguishing credential of Messiah.

16:04 But that's not enough for these Pharisees. Based upon their own man-made traditions, they had determined out of the raw materials of their own notions, drawing to those notions a twisted interpretation of several Old Testament scriptures and were convinced that Messiah must do something more than signs upon earth. You see this in John chapter 6 and verse 30.

16:41 They come to the Lord Jesus and they say, What then do you for a sign that we may see and believe? What work are you doing? Now it wasn't that He hadn't been doing signs. You remember one of the Pharisees had come to Jesus in John 3.

17:02 No man can deny that you are from God for these miracles you are doing attest to that. He had been doing signs but they are using sign in this very limited sense. We want a sign in the heavens. As they thought of Moses in his intimate connection with the sending of the manna, they are saying, do something akin to what Moses did, even though it was not Moses as Jesus told them that gave them the bread of heaven.

17:33 It was God. But they said, in essence, do something like Moses did. Make bread fall down from heaven. Oh yes.

17:40 We've seen you take bread and bless it and break it and feed 5,000. The same way, the story has reached us over on this side of the lake what you did over there in the Decapolis and how you fed 4,000 plus with just a handful of bread cakes and a few fishes. But you see, that was a sign upon earth. We want bread out of heaven.

18:01 We know our Old Testament Jesus and we know that Joshua made the sun stand still in that great battle recorded in Joshua chapter 10. Furthermore, we know that Elijah called down fire out of heaven upon the sacrifice. So the Pharisees are pressuring him to perform a sign out of heaven. They want the Lord Jesus to reach up and by the snap of his fingers have the sun and the moon play leapfrog before their eyes.

18:36 They want him to wave his hands and choreograph a dance of the stars before their very eyes.

18:45 And they come to him demanding such a sign of Jesus. That was their specific activity according to the text. They began to debate, to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven. That was their specific activity.

The Pharisees' Sinister Motive: Trying and Tempting Jesus

19:04 Now what was their sinister motive? Look at the text.

19:09 Trying him. The word for try means to test, to tempt, to put to the test. You see, Jesus had already made it clear that he would not indulge in such things. In an earlier incident recorded in Matthew chapter 12 in verse 38, they were seeking a sign from heaven.

19:36 Jesus said no such sign will be given. Now they come to press the issue again with their mindset that he was in cahoots with the devil. The only way, they say, that mindset will in any way be altered is if you do a sign out of the heavens and they did it not sincerely, but the text tells us tempting him, putting him to the test, trying him. Now you see what the trial was?

20:05 If he tries and fails, we expose him as an imposter. If he refuses to do what we demand, then he doesn't have the credentials of Messiah as we have determined those credentials and therefore we need not believe upon him. Their sinister motive was to tempt him, to try him, to put him to the test in terms of their own standards so that they might carry out with the semblance of a rational reason the determination they'd already made in their hearts to kill him. The determination described way back in chapter 3, as long as this one who marches to the beat of a different, different drum is among us, we're losing our hold upon the people. We've got to get rid of him. And then and only then can we reestablish our place of leadership in Israel. Well that is what Mark tells us about this aggressive approach of the Pharisees.

The Decisive Response of Jesus: Emotional, Verbal, and Physical

21:09 Now then, verses 12 and 13, consider with me the decisive response of Jesus to the Pharisees. And Mark very succinctly records our response to the Pharisees. He gives fewer details than Matthew does, but there are no contradictions. He just opens up the accordion more fully and you see more folds of details.

21:34 Mark gives us the condensed version. The accordion is closed and he just gives us the details that lie on the edge of the folds. Matthew opens it up and gives us some details that are in the folds. No contradiction.

21:46 And since I'm expounding Mark and not Matthew, I'll only make one or two references to Matthew. Mark with that beautiful and I don't know what else to call it from a literary standpoint, but beautiful succinctness and yet orderliness records the decisive response of Jesus to the Pharisees in three categories. First of all, his emotional response, his verbal response, and then his physical response. Do you see it in the text?

22:18 And he sighed deeply in his spirit. His emotional response.

22:27 And said his verbal response, verse 13, and he left again entering and departed his physical response. So let's look at these in somewhat more detail. The decisive response of Jesus to the Pharisees who come with this aggressive debating we're going to nail you spirit is first and foremost, first of all, a moving emotional response. He sighed deeply in his spirit.

Jesus' Emotional Response: A Deep Sigh from His Spirit

23:06 Here's another one of those incidents where Mark delights to record the subtle details of our Lord's responses. The look of an eye, the sigh, the groan, a gesture. Now we saw our Lord sighing in chapter 7. You'll remember in conjunction, with the man who was deaf and had the impediment of speech.

23:29 After he had placed his fingers in his ears and looked up to heaven, he sighs. And the same root word is used here, but it's an intensified form. It's the sigh with a prefix. The only place found in the New Testament.

23:44 And that word with that prefix could well be translated, he sighed or groaned up from the depths of his spirit. He sighed from the depths of his spirit. Like the pressure of an artesian well that is tapped from the surface and the pressure of that water that has been underground perhaps for hundreds of years burst forth. That's the picture given of the sigh of Jesus.

24:22 There was this deep inward pressure of present emotion. In the presence of this aggressive approach of the Pharisees and all that it signified that caused our Lord to do something that Mark could not describe simply as a sigh, but as a sigh that as it were was wrung out of the depths of our Lord's holy humanity. It was the sigh pressured by the deepest, deepest grief in the face of the horrible, willful blindness of these Pharisees. I think of this sigh as the preview of his wailing over Jerusalem in his final approach to that city. Hear the thought of what their willful unbelief and blindness will bring them produces the sigh of grief, the sigh of grief will eventually spill into the wailing over Jerusalem as he beholds the city lying under the impending judgment of God. I'm convinced with most of the commentators

25:49 on the basis of the analogy of scripture that it was a sigh that was wrung out of this grief mingled with anger and righteous indignation. Blind leaders of the blind who in their blind and willful prejudice keep the multitudes captive under their weight of a burdensome religious system that makes them all to be overborn with the pressure of it. And as Jesus looks upon them in their arrogance that they dare to accost Him, debate with Him, demand of Him credentials according to their standards, while refusing to see all of the credentials of the Father's standards, all of which He has met, our Lord responds with the deepest of emotion. Let me only pause to say, if there were no other passage in the New Testament that justifies both the feeling and the expression of the deepest emotion in the presence of religious realities, this passage would justify.

Jesus' Verbal Response: A Rhetorical Question and Solemn Assertion

27:01 He deeply sighed. And I won't even try to reproduce it. I simply expound what the text says. But then Mark goes on from his emotional response to describe his verbal response, and it had two parts to it.

27:17 Look at the text.

27:20 I'm only expounding. I ask you to follow. Two parts to his verbal response. Number one, a rhetorical question.

27:28 You see it? Why does this generation seek a sign? Then a solemn assertion. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not be given a sign.

27:41 His verbal response, two parts. A rhetorical question. Why does this generation seek a sign? And the tense of that verb means, why does this generation continually seek a sign?

28:00 It's a characteristic of this generation that it is seeking. Such a sign, namely, a sign in the heavens. Not a miracle or a wonder work that is consistent with the healing, redemptive identity of Messiah, but some kind of work of power that will dazzle in the maze, though it doesn't touch upon suffering sinful humanity in its need. He asks this question because it was characteristic of that generation.

28:32 John 6.30. Matthew 12.38.

28:35 Luke 11.16. And other passages. And it goes right on up to his crucifixion.

28:41 They change the terms and say, if you come down from the cross, we'll believe. Now give us a sign. Not in the heavens, but right here upon the earth. They're always seeking for signs that they determine will be the final validation of the identity of Jesus.

28:57 It's a rhetorical question. Why does this generation seek for a sign? Why does this generation seek for a sign? Why does this generation seek for a sign?

29:04 And what's so significant is that he says in the parallel passages, it is an evil and adulterous generation that seeks a sign. You see, the peculiarity of that generation morally was its perversity. It was an evil generation. And religiously, it was an apostate generation.

29:25 It was adulterous. It had committed spiritual adultery. It had committed spiritual whoredom from Jehovah. And he says in the midst of that, moral and religious state of perversity on the one hand and apostasy on the other, why does this generation seek a sign?

29:44 A rhetorical question. The answer is obvious.

29:48 In that horrible moral and religiously apostate condition, the pressure of the word of God was such that there was no alternative to maintain credibility but to engage in national repentance for their wickedness and for their apostasy. And so they say, well, we will not follow the clear dictates of Moses and the prophets calling us to repentance until this one can give us a validation according to our terms. We are exempt from doing the will of God as that will is articulated through his lips. You have heard that it was said, that's the tradition of your fathers.

30:25 But I say unto you, this is the true message of the law of Moses. This is the true message of the Father. They would none of that. Why?

30:34 Why? The rhetorical, the question is asked. Then he makes a solemn assertion. Truly, verily I say unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation.

30:47 Now whenever you find those words verily, truly in the lips of Jesus, you know something peculiarly solemn and serious is about to be uttered. And then if I gave a literal translation, this would be a wooden literal translation. Verily I say unto you, if it shall be given a sign to this generation. And there the sentence stops.

31:16 Most of the commentators are quick to point out that you have a form of a Hebrew oath in which the latter part or the introductory part is assumed. Let me show you how we do something similar to this. Here a child has been particularly perverse and determined to do a certain thing he shouldn't. All right?

31:37 He's been told, he's been spanked, he's been told he's been spanked, and now he's served notice. There's got to be an escalation of the form of punishment. So a parent says, if you so much as touch that thing one more time,

31:56 and then the parent stops and the child fills in the rest, he knows mom, dad means something worse is coming. You see that? Now that's what Jesus does here. He says, verily, I say unto you, if a sign is given to this generation,

32:18 such words they would assume would be these. Let me be accursed of God. Let the judgment of God fall upon me. Let me be totally invalidated in all my claims.

32:30 In other words, as long as God is God and I am his Messiah, no such sign as you demand will be given you. And then in the parallel passage he says, but another kind of sign, not in the heavens, but in the earth will be given to you. As Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the whale, social, the son of man be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. The sign will not come out of the heavens, but out of Joseph's tomb.

33:01 And imagine how that would stick on Sadducees who don't believe in resurrection and Pharisees who don't believe Jesus and Messiah. So when they kill him, they think they get rid of him. He says the sign to you, fellas will be this. You Pharisees, you believe in resurrection, but you don't believe I am the resurrection and open tomb will be the validation that I am all I claim to be.

Jesus' Physical Response: Abrupt Departure

33:21 And you Sadducees who don't even believe in resurrection, your beliefs will go down the tubes on Easter morning. That's the solemn assertion of the Lord Jesus. And then having looked at his emotional response, his verbal response, Mark concludes in verse 13 with the physical response of Jesus. Here you have two participles in one main verb.

33:46 The emphasis falls so solemnly, so solemnly, frighteningly upon the main verb departed. But prior to that, we read having left them. And it's not a word that simply means geographical location. It's a word sometimes translated for divorce for abandoned.

34:10 It's a strong word. Having left them with resolution, just like the disciples left their nets. That's the word used in Mark 118. Having left them and again embarking.

34:24 And that's all you have is the word embarking. The old 1901 puts in italics the boat because the original doesn't have the words the boat. The assumption is the boat, but literally having left them and having embarked in the boat, he departed. He departed.

34:44 He went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Having come from the eastern shore in the area of the Decapolis to the western shore, having had this encounter, our Lord turns and he leaves them abruptly, decisively, resolutely. He refuses to debate with them. He refuses to pander to their prejudice.

35:12 He leaves. He embarks. He departs. Now that's the text.

Application 1: Our Religious Duty – Never Capitulate to Unbelief's Demands

35:19 I've sought to open it up, being honest with the language of Scripture, as it sets before us the aggressive approach of the Pharisees and the decisive response of Jesus. Now then, what does God intend we should learn from this? May I say when that question is asked, beware of people who try to take out of the Bible, all kinds of hidden and exotic notions resting upon numbers and names and all this other nonsense. The major lessons are ethical and moral and religious in terms of the great principles of the purpose for which the Son of God came from earth to heaven, from heaven to earth. And I lay before you this morning two lines of very obvious application. First of all, this passage contains a vital principle which constitutes our religious duty. It contains a vital principle which constitutes our religious duty.

36:36 And what is the principle? Listen carefully. Seek to grasp it. We must never allow unbelieving men to dictate the terms on which they will accept the credibility of the claims of Christ.

36:57 You see the principle? We must never allow unbelieving men to dictate the terms on which they will accept the credibility of the claims of Christ. Look back at the passage. Jesus had come in his own language, not doing his own will, but whose will?

37:24 He said, the will of my Father. What I see my Father do, I do. The words that I speak, he gives me. The deeds that I do, he has given me to do.

37:34 He comes to the end of his life and says, Father, I have accomplished the work which you gave me to do. Every sign the Father wanted him to do, he did. Every finger pointing to the uniqueness of his person in fulfillment of all the messianic promises were filled to the full in Jesus Christ. When the Pharisees come along and say, not enough, not of the right kind, not of the right nature, we demand a sign from heaven.

38:19 When you make the sun and the moon play leapfrog, then we'll accept your claims. When you orchestrate a dance of the stars and choreograph a beautiful work of art in the heavens before our eyes, then we'll believe Jesus does not capitulate for a moment. He puts himself under a solemn oath. Never!

38:50 My Father tells me what I do to validate my claims. And if my Father's will expressed in my life is not enough, then perish in your willful unbelief. Now you say, what in the world does that have to do with us? You've said to us that there's a principle which constitutes our religious duty.

39:13 Well, that's what the principle is. We must never allow unbelieving men to dictate to us the terms on which they'll accept the credibility of the claims of Christ. For example, people say, you want to claim that what you bring is the message of Almighty God? It's a matter of life and death?

39:34 Believe that message or perish? Prove to me that you are what you say you are. Do the miracles that Jesus did. And so people demand of preachers and of the church, say, if you'll repeat the miracles that Jesus did, then we'll believe that you are the followers that you say you are.

39:53 We'll believe. But where in the Bible are we told that the ordinary purpose of God for the church is one of performing miracles to the end of the age? That is a demand that is laid upon us by men, not by God. Others say, well, if the church wants a hearing, then let the church solve the problems of racial tensions and social inequity and all of the problems of the uneven distribution of wealth and the problem of the proliferation of nuclear armaments.

40:30 Let the church resolve the world's problems. Then we'll take heed to the claims of Christ. Now what do we say to all of that? We say, I hope with a solemn vow in the presence of God, verily I say unto you, world, if we capitulate to your demands, let us be accursed of God.

41:00 Just as the Father had given Jesus a task, and in obedience to that task was all the validation necessary to a believing heart, that's why others could say, and we'll see in a few weeks, His own immediate followers could say, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You have all the credentials. We need no more. So we have been given a task by the Lord Jesus Christ to make disciples of the nations.

41:33 How? Not by solving the ills of the nations, sorting out the inequities of the nations, but He says, preach the gospel to the whole creation. Make disciples of all the nations with the spiritual weapons of prayer and preaching and testimony and witness bearing and a holy life and a living community that manifests the power of the gospel. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, not if you are performing signs and wonders, but if you have love one to another.

42:09 Be blameless and harmless, sons of God without rebuke, shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and a perverse church. And a perverse generation. This whole notion that men will believe if only they have more evidence was spawned in the depths of hell. You read about it in Luke chapter 16.

42:31 Luke chapter 16. A man dies and goes to hell. And in hell he lifts up his eyes in torment. In hell he manifests some kind of benevolence and concern for his brothers.

42:51 Verse 27 of Luke 16. And he said, I pray thee, Father, that is, Father Abraham, send him to my Father's house. I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them that they come not to this place of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets.

43:11 They have the Scriptures. The Scriptures according to 2 Timothy 3.14 that are able to make us wise unto salvation. They have the Scriptures.

43:20 Let them hear them. And he said, No, Father Abraham, Scripture's not enough. I need another sign if my brothers are going to be persuaded. If one go to them from the dead, they will repent.

43:32 The claims of God in Christ in Scripture are not enough. There's got to be an additional validating sign. And what is the answer? And he said unto them, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead.

43:50 They may be dazzled. They may throw up their hands and say, Oh, isn't that marvelous? But they will not be spiritually persuaded. Why?

44:03 Because if the testimony of the Bible about what you are as God's creature and a sinner under the wrath of God and the testimony of the Bible about God's love to sinners in the person of Christ and the sending of the Spirit and the provision of forgiveness, and pardon, if that testimony is not brought home to your heart with power, 10,000 people can be raised from the dead and you'll still love your sins and perish in your unbelief, marveling all the while that 10,000 people were raised from the dead. And my soul is vexed unto weariness with this capitulation on the part of vast segments of the church, listening to the Word, to the world's demands, is how it comes across among young people in evangelism. Prove to me that the claims of Christ won't upset our youth style, our music. We like our hard rock. We like our heavy metal.

45:16 To us, that the gospel won't touch our God, then we'll believe. And along come these silly, dishonoring, heavy metal so-called Christian rock groups throwing out New Testaments while they act like animals, dressed like perverts. What is it? It's the very spirit of this passage being violated.

45:41 We young people will demand what the gospel must be and do before we believe. And along come polite middle class people saying, prove to me that I can still be a materialist and hold on to my stocks and bonds and houses and things with no claims of Christ over it. Then I'll believe the gospel. So what do we have?

46:04 We've got the health, wealth and prosperity cult. All of those things are a violation of this very principle. The world is dictating to the church saying, do this, be this, and then we'll accept the claims of Christ. My friend, you better accept his claims on one basis.

46:28 That this book says he is who he is and well-attested witnesses describe his mighty signs and wonders and your own conscience affirms if you do not bow the knee to him and capitulate to him, you'll meet him in the last day and feel the full fury of his wrath and his anger. What a tragedy. Then you have the more respectable segment of the church the world is saying you want credibility. Get involved directly in social action as a church.

47:06 Get involved in political action as a church. The church must lift up its prophetic voice. Whole segments of the Christian church and esteemed leaders of evangelicalism are telling us not to take the New Testament epistles as the models of church life but the Old Testament prophets preaching in a theocracy. With the uniqueness of that theocratic structure and saying that the church ought to be more patterned after the perspectives of the prophets and the theocracy rather than the apostles in the New Covenant community.

47:45 Dear people, we're fighting for our life. You wonder, do you wonder why some of us as your leaders become disturbed and agitated? We're committed to preserving you from being infected with this hellish pressure. That in this place by the grace of God the only credentials we will be concerned about are those that King Jesus says ought to hang on our blouses and on our shirts.

Application 2: A Sober Warning – The Repulsive Power of Unbelief

48:19 Then I must hurry to the final principle and with this I close. The passage not only sets before us a vital principle which constitutes our religious duty it paints a vivid picture.

48:34 Which constitutes a sober warning. It paints a vivid picture which constitutes a sober warning. I don't know how you feel but ever since I studied the passage in some depth that sigh of Jesus has haunted me. And picturing Jesus turning on his heel and walking away I've been haunted by it.

49:05 The words that have kept going through my mind are these words. The repulsive power of unbelief. This is the Jesus who is not repulsed when he looked at lepers in all of their ugliness and uncleanness when they cried he drew near and he touched them something no decent Israelite would do. He wasn't repulsed in the presence of leprosy in all of its ugliness in all of its repulsiveness he was not repulsed.

49:37 And when the local hookers and the call girls society were bypassed by the religious crowd Jesus was not repulsed. He let one of them wash his feet with her tears and wipe his feet with her hair so much so that the Pharisees said that he knew what kind of woman this is. Yes he knew. He was not repulsed by hookers.

49:56 He wasn't repulsed by lepers. But I tell you he was repulsed by polite religious unbelief. It was unbelief that caused him to turn heel. And to depart.

50:16 He sighed. He turned. He embarked. And he left.

50:22 The repulsive power of unbelief. My friend in all likelihood some of these very Pharisees were the ones over whom the woes of that wailing over Jerusalem were pronounced and who are now in hell. This was their last overture of mercy. I tell you it's frightening that the Son of God who is not repulsed by the most sordid lifestyles and sin where he finds in that sinner any reaching out for his mercy and his grace.

51:05 He stops. He stoops. He touches. He forgives.

51:11 He welcomes. He warmly receives. But in the presence of people who knew their Bible so they thought. Had their categories of what religion ought to be and how Jesus ought to act Jesus wouldn't bend to their preconceived notions.

51:31 He met them with a solemn oath Never will I bend. And then he turns and he walks away. That's a preview of hell when he'll say depart from me. Depart from me.

51:48 Depart from me. Oh my friend dread the repulsive power of unbelief. It'll drive Christ away. You'll never know his forgiveness.

52:01 You'll never know his mercy. Never know the warmth of his reconciling embrace. Never know the sweetness of sins forgiven. He that believeth not shall be damned.

52:13 In flaming fire taking vengeance on those that do not believe and obey the gospel. I plead with you therefore. On the basis of the well attested credibility of Jesus. The well attested credibility of his apostles and the message they bring to you in the scriptures.

52:35 Repent of your sin. Get down off your high horse of arrogance and pride and snapping your fingers and telling God the terms that he must meet before you'll do him a favor. Fall at the feet of Jesus and cry with the blind beggar beggar son of David have mercy on me. Son of David have mercy on me.

53:00 No man, no woman, no boy and no girl ever thus fell and found the Savior repulsed by the cry for mercy. Never, never, never. And many of us can say we found him to be just what he said he was. Meek and lowly in heart and ready to receive the vilest of sinners.

53:25 The Pharisees came with a bone to pick. Jesus dealt with them decisively and in that decisive dealing we have this vital principle that constitutes a rule of religious duty. We have a vivid picture that constitutes a sober warning to us all. May we hear the word of God that has been preached to us this morning.

53:53 Let us pray. Our Father how thankful we are for the scriptures. We thank you for the livingness of the word of God. When we come to it we are not bringing mind and heart into contact with a record that is evacuated of all life but that your own dear Son by the Spirit fills up the record with himself and speaks to us in all the livingness of his person through that very record that we have heard about him. Oh may we each hear his voice calling us to himself calling us to a commitment as the people of God that as he was so shall we be in the world doing only the will of our Father never capitulating to the pressure of the so called experts who tell us what we must be and do but looking only to him who alone is our Lord. And our Sovereign have mercy upon the unconverted here this morning and oh Lord may they tremble at the thought that their unbelief will repel the Son of God

55:21 put him at a distance cause him to leave and in his leaving to be put beyond the hope of all mercy and forgiveness God in grace arrest such we pray seal your word to our hearts give us grace to live and think and act in its light and to your name be praise and honor and glory now and forever more Amen